Addresses in Warren still pose election problems
By MATTHEW E. MILLIKEN, Daily Dispatch Writer

WARRENTON - The Warren County elections office appears to have cleared up its database troubles - at least for the moment - but board members expressed anxiety about dealing with voters who do not know their precinct.

If there is any discrepancy concerning a voter's information, such as a person stating an address that does not match the one on record or going to the wrong polling place, that individual must vote using a provisional ballot.

That will not go over well with citizens, an experienced election judge warned the Board of Elections at a meeting Thursday.

"When you tell (people) they can't vote on the machine, that's almost like an insult to them," said Tilda Hendricks, an independent insurance saleswoman who has worked in elections for 18 years.

Hendricks said that not only do people now enjoy using the county's electronic voting machines, but they fear that provisional ballots are not counted.

"Provisional ballots send up flags - whether you've done anything wrong or not," she said.

Hendricks urged the board to get voters to check their precincts, which they should be able to do at the elections office, in the annex to the John Graham Building at 309 N. Main St. in Warrenton.

The board first discussed the issue in February. Because the county's new mapping tools are much more precise, the county expects to find many people who for years voted in the wrong precincts.

Hendricks asked whether the board could print newspaper ads showing which addresses are in which precincts.

But that doesn't appear feasible because there are so many addresses. One precinct, West Warrenton, for example, has 1,407.

During and after the meeting, board Chairwoman Mary Somerville, the acting elections director, lamented the delicate process of communicating with the public about voting.

"You don't know whether to overplay it or underplay it," she said.

The former path can prompt panic, Somerville said, while the second choice might lead to an uninformed citizenry.

She noted that one difference with provisional voting now is that voters can learn whether their ballots were counted - and if not, the reasons why.

At the meeting, Warren County E-911 coordinator Marcus Johnson submitted a $2,200 bill to the board. He worked 44 hours to provide the elections office with databases that have every address in the county.

The files can generate three sets of data: a master street addressing guide listing the 1,319 county roads and the range of numbers of the addresses on those roads; a list of every address in every precinct; and a list of every street in every community. The lists can be used to show the precinct in which a voter belongs.

Johnson's databases are comprehensive - for the moment.

It must be d when buildings are constructed, and it may have to be changed this summer when citizens get another chance to rename roads in the county.

And there's another snag.

Although Johnson was responsible in his E-911 coordinator's job for issuing an address to every building in the county, he can't tell the elections office who lives where.

That leaves the board with the problem of what to do with a boxful of voter registration cards that were returned by the post office because of address problems. Several list the recipient's street address as the number zero and the name of a road.

Many cards probably belong to voters who have not d their addresses with the elections office or who don't know the addresses they were issued by the E-911 mapping project.

Still, Somerville deemed herself pleased with the progress the office has made.

"I don't want to toot our own horn, but we have been rolling," she said.

She said she and the office's sole staff member have worked early mornings, evenings and weekends.

"We took an oath to get this thing right, and we intend to do it by any means necessary," Somerville said.

She has pledged to be prepared for the July 20 primary election. In an open letter to voters, she asked them to "help us to help you" on Election Day by being patient, having identification and accepting a provisional ballot if necessary.

In other business, the board made the following decisions and announcements:

- A voter registration drive will be held today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on courthouse square in downtown Warrenton.

- Another voter registration drive will be held Tuesday evening at the meet-the-candidates forum at the Longbridge Volunteer Fire Department on Eaton Ferry Road in Littleton.

- A state investigator made two visits to the office to check computer security but was unable to issue a clean bill of health. Somerville said the investigator did not appear certain which files he was looking for or where they could be located.

- A MicroVote representative will visit the office June 17 to program the voting machines, a process that should take a few hours.

- Notices for the vote on alcohol sales have been printed and will be posted.

- The board will apply by July 1 for a grant to purchase a desktop computer and three laptop computers.

- The last day to register to vote in the primary election is June 25.